Just Give Me A SOPA!

Every time I used to hear the term "SOPA," the above Dictators song would always come into my mind. I know, sick. But it's an amazing song that predated the Ramones and Pistols in terms of punk. Wednesday, though, SOPA burst onto the national stage with millions of kids complaining to their parents that they couldn't do their homework because Wikipedia was down. Wikipedia said 162 million people saw its page asking users to find out about the proposed legislation and contact their representatives about it. Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales said via Twitter that that compares to about 25 to 30 million visitors on a normal day.

Wednesday night Rachel Maddow and Chris Hays discussed how incredibly successful the SOPA online protests were-- and you can watch them discussing it below. One of the measurements of the success was how many Republican sponsors of the legislation jumped ship and declared themselves not co-sponsors but opponents of SOPA. Here's the list of the co-sponsors: assholes. Rachel reads off a long list of congressmembers and senators who are no longer supporters, mostly Republicans.

But Republicans aren't the only ones running scared. Reactionary Blue Dogs who almost always go along with the worst right-wing ideas, especially when they smell corporate cash on the other end of a vote, were big SOPA supporters. Five Blue Dogs-- including two of the most corrupt in the kennel, John Barrow (GA) and Tim Holden (PA)-- were also co-sponsors. But now Holden has a progressive primary challenger, Matt Cartwright, and he's running scared. His new district is solidly blue, and his hideous right-wing voting record is indefensible. One attack from Cartwright, a prominent SOPA opponent, and Holden went running for the exit. "In my opinion," wrote Cartwright on Monday, "SOPA is a bill so riddled with unconstitutional infringements on free speech and unconstitutionally vague criminalization of conduct that it is hard to believe its authors ever even read the one document that they swore to protect and defend."

Meanwhile, though, the real movers and shakers behind SOPA in the Democratic Party are congressmembers on the entertainment-industry gravy train, especially Howard Berman (CA), Adam Schiff (Blue Dog-CA), Brad Sherman (CA) and, worst of all, DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Even after President Obama and House Minority Leader Pelosi signaled they oppose the bill, Wasserman Schultz hung on. Even after internet pornographer Ben Quayle (R-AZ) withdrew his sponsorship of the bill, Debbie Wasserman Schultz hung on. She seems to feel more passionately about destroying the Internet than anything since she supported, as DCCC Red to Blue chair, three right-wing Republicans against the Democrats she was supposed to help get elected a few years back.

And people ask why voters don't embrace the Democratic Party?